"Lunarville Seven" (instalment)
"Lunarville Seven," whose title is stylised as "Lunarville 7," is the twelfth instalment of Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons. Written by Tony Barwick and directed by Robert Lynn, it was first transmitted on 15 December 1967 on ATV Midlands. It is also the first episode of the Space Exploration Trilogy, with "Crater 101" and "Dangerous Rendezvous" following after. The synopsis A Surprising Announcement In distant space on the moon, the Controller of Lunarville 7 makes an announcement of how the planet has given him and the people the freedom to live in safety and comfort. He goes on to say that they will not support Earth against the Mysterons and that he has been able to communicate with them and come to a peace settlement. The Controller turns to his personal assistant, Orson, and asks him how the transmission to Earth went. After Orson's answer, he asks the same question of the computer, called S.I.D. for S''peech ''I''ntelligence ''D''ecoder, who gives him a detailed reading of his success. Aboard Cloudbase, Colonel White holds a meeting with Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, and Lieutenant Green about the Lunar Controller's transmission. Lieutenant Green reads about how the Controller said he was able to contact the Mysterons and come to a settlement; this last interests the Colonel, who wants to know how this is possible. But all three are unsure of this, and Colonel White sends them to the moon to investigate. The Mysterons then send another message. "We have no quarrel with the moon and we accept their offer of friendship," it says. ''"But we will continue to take our revenge against the Earth.' We will be avenged." Mission On The Moon Later, a rocket containing Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, and Lieutenant Green prepares to launch. Colonel White sends some final instructions, as the Lunar Controller has accepted their visit--but has banned radios and other equipment. He says that there are signs of unauthorised construction going on in the Humboldt "Sea" on the far side of the moon and that they have to investigate it. These instructions are so extremely important that the fate of the world could be in their hands. On Lunarville 7, S.I.D. announces that the Spectrum personnel will be arriving soon. The Lunar Controller tells Orson to go and meet them. Both men agree that this, their first visit to the moon, will be their last. The Spectrum agents arrive at the airlock in the main control room. They there meet Orson, who introduces himself and gives them each a recognition disc to wear before taking them to see the Controller. The Controller cheerfully greets them and introduces S.I.D., their control computer, who is programmed to understand and obey verbal instructions and can answer with his own simulated voice. S.I.D. greets each one of the Spectrum agents by their recognition discs, because they are their miniature identification cards. Lieutenant Green asks S.I.D. a question and is amazed by his thorough answer. The Controller continues to say that S.I.D. controls everything in Lunarville from air conditioning to the rockets and moon mobiles. But a remark Lieutenant Green makes about how Earth designed and developed that computer suddenly angers the Controller, who says that Earth might have helped them in the past but that they are now self-reliant, democratic and free. His anger suddenly subsides and he apologizes, with Captain Scarlet giving him a letter from the World President. Orson then takes the three out in a moon mobile, showing them around the area. They pass Lunarville 4, where most of the food is grown. He goes on to say that both the elements hydrogen and oxygen are always there, so they never run out of water. Suddenly Captain Scarlet reveals the Humboldt "Sea." Panicking, Orson demands to know why they want to go there. Captain Scarlet explains to him that it is simple curiosity. After making several excuses and finally refusing them altogether, Orson takes them back to Lunarville 7. A Shocking Discovery! After returning to Lunarville 7, Orson shows the three Spectrum agents their sleeping quarters, says good-night, and leaves. Captain Blue tells Captain Scarlet about Orson's reaction to the Humboldt "Sea," but his friend silences him and points out that he suspects that the room is bugged. He then bids Captain Blue and Lieutenant Green keep talking about something else while he tries to find it. Sure enough, Orson is in the control room listening in. Captain Scarlet finally finds the bug, hidden inside one of the table lamps. Wondering why it has suddenly grown quiet, Orson turns up the receiver volume. Thereupon, Captain Scarlet shouts as loudly as he can directly into the microphone, making Orson's ears ring, before pulling it out. The Controller enters the room and Orson tells him what has happened. He tells him to leave them alone, that he has programmed S.I.D. to accept only his authorization and that he will keep all the exits sealed, trapping the three Spectrum agents. Later, the Spectrum agents are sleeping, let alone Captain Scarlet, who goes to the main control room and requests a moon mobile from S.I.D. However, S.I.D. replies that his recognition disc cannot authorize his request, as that only the Controller has the authority to make such requests, having declared a state of emergency and evacuated all the other people on the lunar station. Captain Scarlet goes back to wake up Captain Blue and explains the situation. He then says that they need to get a moon mobile and explore the Humboldt "Sea," which could be the answer to their problems. He bids Captain Blue wake Lieutenant Green and have them both meet him at Airlock 3 while he finds a way to get S.I.D. to let them out. Captain Scarlet then goes to the sleeping quarters of the Lunar Controller, who is fast asleep there, and walks over to him. After getting S.I.D. to let them out, they get a moon mobile and set off for the Humboldt "Sea," with Lieutenant Green reading the map references and Captain Blue driving the moon mobile. After much searching, the three finally find an area called "Crater 101." They go to it and see machinery, '''''with no one controlling it, building a Mysteron complex as seen from Mars. After observing it, Captain Scarlet decides that they have seen enough and will have to return and report their discovery to Cloudbase. The End of Lunarville 7 Back at Lunarville 7, Orson discovers that the Spectrum agents are gone, and he immediately tells the Controller, who is amazed, angry, and unable to understand. S.I.D. suddenly announces that Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, and Lieutenant Green have now entered. The Controller immediately orders Orson to bring them in, intending what they have seen never to get back to Earth. But Captain Scarlet suddenly enters and arrests the Controller for rejecting the World President's letter, that was subject to their investigation. Then he proceeds to escort him back to Earth. The Controller, scoffing, reveals himself to be a Mysteron agent and says that soon the Mysterons will take over the moon and then destroy Earth. Captain Scarlet reveals that they have seen the complex and that it will be destroyed. The Controller announces that none of them will leave the moon alive. Captain Scarlet orders S.I.D. to prepare a lunar rocket for immediate launch to take them back to Earth. S.I.D. obeys, much to the amazement of the Controller, who orders S.I.D. to seal all of Lunarville's exits. But S.I.D. does NOT comply with these orders. After knocking out Orson, the three Spectrum agents head for the airlock. The Controller continues to order S.I.D., futilely, to obey his instructions, but Captain Scarlet reveals that he had exchanged recognition discs with him the night before, making S.I.D. unable to identify him. The Controller, growing desperate, still continues to order S.I.D. to obey him, but the computer still refuses to recognise his authorisation. The Spectrum agents quickly get into the rocket, which, by this time, is ready for launch. Fuming with anger, the Lunar Controller pulls out a gun and gives S.I.D. one last chance to obey him. When the computer still cannot, he shoots at S.I.D. After several shots, with the Controller still screaming at S.I.D. in frustration to obey him, the computer explodes, causing a pyramid reaction that completely obliterates Lunarville 7 and destroys the Mysteron likenesses of the Controller and Orson in the process. Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, and Lieutenant Green lift off in the lunar rocket just as the lunar station starts to explode, and all three return safely to Earth. Back on board Cloudbase, Colonel White discusses the situation and says that they will never know how the Mysterons took over the Lunar Controller or Orson because of the destructions of both of their likenesses. He reads them a note of thanks from the World President and tells them that this space exploration will continue until the Mysterons have ended their "War of Nerves" against the Earth. Production "Lunarville 7" was filmed on Century 21 Studios' Stage 4. In his speech at the start of the episode, the Lunar Controller remarks that the Moon is home to approximately 4,000 humans. In Tony Barwick's original script, the character was then to have discussed the self-reliance of the lunar colonies in greater detail, stating, for example: "We were all born on Earth, but I see a future where men will be born, spend their lives and die on the Moon." These lines were cut from the finished episode. The Moon shuttle interior was a re-dress of the MEV cockpit that previously appeared in Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and the series' first episode, while the Lunarville 7 control room console was adapted from a prop that was originally built for the Thunderbirds episode "Ricochet". The design of the Moonmobiles influenced that of the SHADO Moonmobiles from UFO. The synthesised voice of SID was provided by regular supporting voice actor Martin King, who spoke his lines into a vocoder supplied by Standard Telecommunication Laboratories of Harlow. The episode's end titles credit STL for "electronic collaboration". This episode's incidental music was recorded on 23 July 1967 with an ensemble of four instrumentalists. It features an Ondes Martenot played by series composer Barry Gray himself. Music for "The Launching" was recorded on the same day. "Lunarville 7" was the first episode of Captain Scarlet to be produced featuring the lyrical version of the series' end titles music performed by pop group The Spectrum. This was recorded on 26 July 1967. Footage from "Lunarville 7" was incorporated into the 1981 Captain Scarlet compilation film Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars. Reception Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett praise "Lunarville 7" as a good episode of Captain Scarlet. The British Board of Film Classification certifies the episode U, noting that it contains one "mild" instance of violence. Quotes * Captain Scarlet '''- "GOODNIGHT ORSON!" '''Orson - "AAAARGHH!" Goofs * The Lunar Controller states that Humans had landed on the Moon in the 1970s. In truth, the NASA's Apollo Project landed Flight No. 11 on the Moon in 1969. **This episode was produced and first transmitted prior TO Apollo 11's successful flight. Category:Lunarville Category:Episodes without retro-metabolisms Category:Original Captain Scarlet Episodes Category:Captain Scarlet Episodes